The environment is everywhere.

That didn’t take long. Demonstrators in Germany came out in force, 50,000 strong,

demanding that the German government move away from nuclear power.

You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to question the wisdom of going nuclear in an age when we have the know-how to develop alternative energy sources.

Politicians’ tilt toward nuclear energy comes from a number of factors. There’s lot’s of money involved, for one thing, and it creates jobs. There are plenty of companies ready to promise they can do it right, and they’ve got designs ready to go, replete with cool powerpoint presentations. And nuclear power keeps things centralized, making it easy to track (at least in some respects).

The trouble is, a nuclear power plant disaster can be of such enormity, it can ruin the whole day of a lot of people, for a long time. Most people just don’t want things done this way, and they are willing to make a lot of sacrifices, in my view, to do things better and cleaner.